Herman

Cain

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September 17, 2007

Hillary Health Care Would Raise Costs; Even She Has No Idea How Much

As we brace ourselves for the soon-to-be-announced Hillary Care Two, we should also prepare ourselves for factual abuse, misuse and omissions.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton has announced that she is going to announce the details of her proposed universal health care plan. She has also stated that she will raise taxes to pay for the plan, the cost of which no human being on the planet can accurately estimate. And of course, the taxes raised will only be on the rich by rolling back the Bush tax cuts that the rich did not need.

As soon as the Census Bureau released the latest numbers on how many people were uninsured in this country, Hillary, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and their big government comrades jumped on the opportunity to say that this is even more reason to create a government solution. Forty seven million people are uninsured, an increase of 2.2 million in 2006 over 2005.

They did not tell you that half of those are uninsured for only four months or less, and that there are a growing number of high-income people choosing to not buy health insurance. It’s a risky decision but it’s their choice.

They also failed to tell you about the most noticeable drop in insurance coverage overall, as noted by Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute:

“The most noticeable drop in insurance coverage overall was among those with job-based insurance, down to 59.7 percent. As we argue over and over, the policy of tying health insurance to the workplace isn’t working for millions of Americans in a mobile, 21^st Century economy.”

The drop in job-based insurance is driven by the 78 percent increase in health insurance premiums since 2001, far outpacing a 19 percent increase in wages and a 17 percent jump in inflation (AP 9-11-07 by Emily Fredrix).  

Tying health insurance to the workplace is not working because employees are spending the boss’s money. People spend other people’s money differently than they would spend their own.

There are two compelling reasons that government-controlled health care will not curb the cost increases. First, no government program has ever reduced the cost of operating a government solution to a problem. Name one! Second, as long as people are spending other people’s money, they will spend it with no end in sight.

As John Stossel observed in a recent ABC “20/20” special, if people were given free grocery insurance, more people would be eating steak, while bologna might become extinct.

Competition drives prices down. This is an immutable law of marketing. The tax code bias in favor of employers instead of employees is the biggest barrier to more free-market solutions to the escalating cost of health care and health care insurance.

When people are spending their own money, smarter choices drive costs down. Most people tend to buy according to their needs and capabilities.

So Hillary and the other Democratic presidential candidates will continue to promise universal health care having no idea of the costs, and using convenient statistics to help justify their proposal.

Facts would be a distraction.

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